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The  Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty 

AND 

The  Panama  Canal 


SAMUEL  L.  PARRISH 
1 1 


The  Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty 

AND 

The  Panama  Canal 

THE  UNITED  STATES  IS  IN  JUSTICE  BOUND  EITHER  TO  REPEAL, 

AMEND  TO  SATISFY  GREAT  BRITAIN,  OR  ARBITRATE 

THE  CANAL  TOLLS  ACT, 


New  York, 
25  Broad  Street, 

January  20,  1913. 
TO  THE  MEMBERS  OF 

THE  UNITED  STATES  SENATE, 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. : 

In  considering  the  present  relations  of  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain,  and  the  unfortunate  complica- 
tions which  have  arisen  from  the  divergent  interpretations 
placed  by  the  governments  of  the  two  countries  upon  the 
provisions  of  the  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty  as  affecting  the 
Panama  Canal,  the  following  historical  'international  se- 
quences may  not  be  without  interest. 

First:  That  of  the  five  Europeaii  nations  that  un- 
dertook, in  a  spirit  of  rivalry,  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  to  colonise  the  Western  Hemisphere, 
Great  Britain  alone  now  shares  with  the  United  States, 
in  American  affairs,  a  position  of  important  political  re- 
sponsibility toward  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Second:  That  with  the  elimination  of  France  from 
North  America  by  conquest  and  voluntary  cession  respec- 
tively, and  by  the  further  practical  elimination  of  Spain 
through  the  successful  revolts  of  her  American  Colonies 
in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  countries 
of  the  Western  Hemisphere  ceased  to  be  subject  to  a 
change  of  sovereignty  as  the  result  of  European  wars, 
and  this  accomplished  fact  was  announced  to  the  world 
by  the  promulgation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 

261385 


Third:  That  this  Doctrine  owed,  nevertheless,  it? 
continuous  vitality  to  the  readiness  of  Great  Britain  to 
join  forces  with  the  United  States  in  its  defense,  for 
without  the  backing  of  the  British  fleet  the  United  States 
would  have  been  powerless  to  resist  any  considerable 
European  coalition  such  as  was  threatened  by  the  Holy 
Alliance. 

Fourth :  That  the  alignment  of  political  and  eco- 
nomic forces  in  both  Europe  and  America  during  the 
nineteenth  century  thus  brought  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  into  close  alliance  as  against  the  rest  of  the 
world,  so  far  at  least  as  the  Western  Hemisphere  was 
concerned,  though  constantly  engaged  in  bickerings  and 
disputes  as  between  themselves. 

Fifth :  That  in  view  of  their  actual  and  potential 
pre-eminence  as  commercial  and  industrial  nations,  and 
from  a  desire  to  advance  the  cause  of  civilisation  on  lines 
peculiarly  adapted  to  the  promotion  of  their  own  activi- 
ties and  interests,  combined  with  a  sense  of  responsi- 
bility toward  the  world  at  large  as  joint  guardians  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere,  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
concluded,  in  1850,  the  so-called  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty. 

Sixth :  That  this  treaty  distinctly  provided  for  an 
unfortified  strip  of  artificial  neutral  sea  between  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans  to  be  open  to  the  whole 
world,  as  well  as  to  themselves,  on  absolutely  equal 
terms,  in  times  both  of  peace  and  war,  the  canal 
having  been  conceived  exclusively  as  a  peaceful  com- 
mercial water-way  to  be  created  for  the  "benefit  of  man- 
kind", as  was  stated  in  so  many  words  in  Article  VI 
of  the  treaty. 

Seventh :  That  as  a  guarantee  of  good  faith  in  this 
their  declared  purpose,  both  the  high  contracting  parties 
agreed  to  use  their  best  endeavors  to  induce  the  other 
nations  of  the  world  to  enter  with  them  into  similar 
treaties  for  the  neutralisation  of  the  canal  and  for  absb- 


lute   equality   in   its   use,   or,   in   diplomatic   language   to 
"adhere"  to  the  Anglo-American  treaty. 

Eighth:  That  within  fifty  years  from  the  ratifica- 
tion of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  and  before  the  con- 
struction of  the  Panama  Canal  had  been  undertaken  by 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  there  occurred  the 
following  events  of  such  transcendent  importance  as  to 
entirely  alter  not  only  the  relations  of  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain  toward  each  other,  but  also  their  re- 
spective relations  toward  the  rest  of  the  world. 

1.  As  the  result  of  the  outcome  of  our  Civil  War, 
followed   by   an   unexampled   industrial   and   commercial 
expansion  which  included  our  Pacific  coast,  and  as  the 
result  also  of  our  Spanish  War,  the  United  States,  for 
the  first  time  in  its  history,  became  a  powerful  consoli- 
dated nation  to  be  politically  and  economically  reckoned 
with  in  both  hemispheres. 

2.  The   unexpected   appearance   on   the   scene  of  a 
united  Germany  in  the  form  of  an  ambitious  and  actually 
and    potentially    aggressive    military    and    naval    empire, 
naturally  seeking  territorial  and  commercial  expansion  on 
both  land  and  sea,  necessarily  at  the  expense  of  her  rivals, 
whomsoever  they  might  be. 

3.  The  appearance  of  Japan  as  a  world  power  in  the 
Far  East  bordering  on  the  Pacific. 

4.  The     abrupt     termination,     through     President 
Cleveland's    Venezuela    message    in    1895,    of    the   joint 
protectorate  of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  over 
the   Western   Hemisphere,   and   the   assumption   of   that 
role  by  the  United  States  alone  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
other  Powers. 

Ninth :  That  with  these  developments  before  their 
eyes  the  American  people  became  restive  under  the 
terms  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  and  regarded  the 
first  draft  of  the  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty  as  a  surrender 
of  their  rights  inasmuch  as  it  still  proposed  to  regard  the 


canal  as  a  strip  of  neutral  sea,  and  not  as  a  part  of  their 
crucial  coast  line,  and  therefore,  as  such,  entitled  to  forti- 
fication to  the  same  extent  as  any  other  part  of  their 
territory. 

Tenth:  That  the  first  draft  of  the  Hay-Pauncefote 
treaty  was  therefore  rejected  by  the  Senate,  but,  at  the 
time  of  the  negotiation  of  the  final  treaty,  the  relations  of 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  were  of  a  peculiarly 
friendly  nature,  largely  as  the  result  of  Great  Britain's 
attitude  at  the  time  of  the  VenezuelaAcrisis,  and  later 
during  the  period  of  our  Spanish  War,  and  that  this 
friendly  relation  in  the  hands  of  two  such  men  as  Mr. 
Hay  and  Lord  Pauncefote  was  bound  to  create  a  situa- 
tion which  made  conciliation  on  our  part  a  natural  out- 
come of  Great  Britain's  consent  to  annul  the  Clayton- 
Bulwer  treaty,  and  then  permit,  without  protest,  the  for- 
tification of  the  canal. 

Eleventh :  That  the  result  was  the  present  treaty, 
ratified  in  December  1901,  wherein,  both  in  letter  and 
in  spirit  are  incorporated  both  the  "general  principle"  and 
the  specific  terms  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treafy  as  to 
entire  equality  in  the  use  of  the  canal  by  all  natrons, 
(in  accordance  with  the  Suez  Canal  rules  adopted  in  1888) 
the  United  States  by  historical  sequence  and  reasonable 
interpretation  included,  minus  only  the  non-fortification 
clause  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  and  minus  also  the 
clause  wherein  other  nations  were  to  be  invited  to 
"adhere"  to  the  treaty. 


In  view  then  of  the  above  facts  and  conclusions  it  is 
submitted  that  Congress  should  either  entirely  repeal  the 
present  Canal  Tolls  Act,  or  so  modify  it  as  to  be  satis- 
factory to  Great  Britain,  or,  failing  that,  should  submit 
the  whole  subject  to  arbitration.  Should  the  latter  course 
be  adopted  and  an  award  be  made  against  us,  as  it  pre- 
sumably would  be  (for  the  business  of  arbitrators  is  to 


fairly  interpret  the  written  contract  and  not  invade  the 
domain  of  economic  and  racial  evolution,  which  is  the 
province  of  war)  there  will  then  be  time  for  American 
public  opinion,  after  carefully  weighing  the  arguments 
on  both  sides,  to  come  to  a  conclusion  as  to  whether 
it  is  better  to  insist  upon  the  abrogation  of  the  present 
Hay-Pauncefote  treaty  and  the  substitution  therefor  of 
one  that  may  more  nearly  appeal  to  its  sense  of  justice, 
or  to  accept  the  conditions  created  by  the  present  treaty, 
not  forgetting  that  in  the  rapid  evolution  of  international 
relations  the  time  may  not  be  far  distant  when  we  may 
be  only  too  anxious  to  avail  ourselves  of  the  friendship 
and  good  will  of  Great  Britain,  especially  in  view  of  the 
complications  that  may  well  arise  with  the  changed 
economic  conditions  that  will  ensue  throughout  the  world 
upon  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal. 

And  further  let  it  not  be  forgotten  by  those  so 
recently  elected  to  the  highest  national  executive  and 
legislative  positions  of  authority,  upon  wrhom  will  pre- 
sumably rest  the  responsibility  of  further  negotiations, 
that  American  public  opinion,  as  daily  voiced  in  the 
columns  of  the  responsible  press  of  the  country,  sees  in 
the  interpretation  of  the  present  treaty  no  paltry  and 
sordid  question  of  the  tolls  of  the  canal,  but  rather  a  ques- 
tion wherein  are  involved  the  dignity,  integrity,  honor, 
and  good  faith  of  the  United  States.  And  beyond  all  that 
can  be  plainly  discerned  the  further  all  important  fact 
that  upon  the  continued  solidarity  of  the  English-speak- 
ing world,  conceived  in  the  loftiest  spirit  of  international 
good  will,  rests,  in  superlative  degree,  the  future  orderly 
progress  of  the  world  at  large  in  the  paths  of  civilization 
and  of  peace. 

SAMUEL  L.  PARRISH. 


V 


YC  09962 


